England footballer Daniel Sturridge has lost his racial discrimination and harassment claim against his landlord over a child's Netflix account labelled 'n*****'.
Sturridge and his partner Jamilla Ferreira rented an £18,500-per-month Cheshire mansion from Alan O'Neill and his wife Katie in October 2018, during the footballer's six-year stint at Liverpool.
But, less than two months after they moved in, Sturridge and Ms Ferreira discovered a profile called 'n*****' when they accessed the O'Neills' Netflix app on their Apple TV account.
The pair demanded £100,000 of damages for 'discrimination' and 'harassment on the grounds of their race'.
But a judge today dismissed Sturridge's claim and said Mrs O'Neill made 'a genuine attempt to apologise' for the account - which belonged to their 11-year-old son.
The profile - which Sturridge and Ms Ferreira discovered on November 24 - showed a caricature of a black person along with n-word.
Court documents reportedly show that the O'Neills - who had moved to California with their children - 'profusely' apologised and said they were not aware of the account.
They said their son was was a fan of black music, especially rap, and would have heard the term while listening to it.
The O'Neills went on to change the account's username as well as the profile picture - but the tenants moved out on February 14.
They had intended to stay in the property until July 2019.
Sturridge and Ms Ferreira sent Mr and Mrs O'Neill a letter on December 10, stating that their older children were in the wrong if they had ignored the existence of the account.
The letter, reported in The Times, read: 'Your son can play act this word, but at the end of the day he goes back to his privileged "white skin" existence.'
Judge Platts said that the letter was 'an attempt by them to explain their position to the defendants', it ended up causing 'deep upset to the defendants and their family'.
Correspondence between the families became heated when the O'Neills pursued Sturridge in the county court for £67,000 of unpaid rent.
Sturridge paid the rent in July 2019 but then filed a different claim for damages 'in respect of the defendants' discrimination against them and/or harrassment on the grounds of their race'.
Just days before the discovery of the account in November, Sturridge had been charged with allegedly breaching FA betting rules.
He was slapped with a £75,000 fine and was banned for six weeks - but four of the weeks were suspended.
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During the United vs City Carabao cup game, the commentator said it's difficult to differentiate between Kevin De Bruyne and Oleksandr Zinchenko, both blonde, pale and often found attacking the wide left position, he even confused them on numerous occasions, no biggie, no problem whatsoever... 5 years ago, Charlie Nicholas made exactly the same remark about Fernando and Fernandinho, he was accused of racism and had to apologise profusely. As a black guy myself, the n-word is something I would always ignore and the highest reaction u can get from me is a smack across the face, suing and taking u to court tho, really? Welcome to the world we've created with our touchiness.